There are two things basketball players want the most – minutes and shots.

Both of those things will be at a premium for Nevada’s players next season.

One year after Eric Musselman said “depth is the most overrated thing in college basketball,” the Wolf Pack coach will have the deepest team in school history, and perhaps one of the deepest in the nation.

During his first three seasons at Nevada, Musselman operated with a paper-thin roster by design. It allowed him to take in sit-out Division I transfers while also increasing the team’s chemistry since every player had a meaningful role given how short his bench was. The downside was Nevada was limited to just seven scholarship players during its Sweet 16 run, but next year the Wolf Pack will have plenty of options.

That’s a good thing, of course, but Musselman and his staff also must keep everybody happen in terms of minutes and shots.

“The good thing is my experience of coaching in the NBA development league where you have a 10-man roster and if a guy gets sent down on assignment that makes 11 guys and maybe two guys get sent down so now it’s 12 players,” Musselman said. “Anybody who plays in the minor leagues, in the G League or the CBA, they want minutes and they want shots and they want to increase their value as players.

“I have a lot of experience in that field. When you coach an NBA team, you have a really talented roster with guys making a lot of money on their contracts and guys who will be free agents. It’s important to be able to balance style of play and balance guys being happy because shots and minutes are what make guys happy.”

While having too much talent is an issue every college coach would gladly accept, some players accustomed to logging big minutes and being offensive focal points will have to accept smaller roles.

A look at the numbers expands on that point. The team’s 11 players with college experience – Caleb Martin, Cody Martin, Jordan Caroline, Lindsey Drew, Josh Hall, Nisre Zouzoua, Corey Henson, Tre’Shawn Thurman, Trey Porter, Ehab Amin and Jazz Johnson – combined to play 348.4 minutes per game in their last college season (there are only 200 minutes available per game). And they combined to attempt 119.8 field goals per game in their last college season (Nevada averaged 60.5 a game last season).

And that’s before the addition of McDonald’s All-American Jordan Brown, who almost certainly will fit into the starting lineup and get his share of touches. While the Martin twins and Caroline could decide to stay in the NBA draft, which would thin the roster a little, minutes and shots won’t be as plentiful for some players next season as they have been in the past. Musselman believes his guys can adapt to that.

He’s confident enough in that belief he added two graduate transfers – Amin, a guard from Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and Porter, a center from Old Dominion – rather than taking D-I transfers who had to redshirt a season before becoming eligible like he has in each of his first three seasons at Nevada.

“The two grad transfers we added, we felt like we needed to be big bigger and block more shots and rebound the ball better,” Musselman said. “Trey Porter will help in that area as well as Tre Thurman. We talked about defensively, we wanted to create more steals and jump in passing lanes and now Ehab comes in and he does something we’re not really good at. So we didn’t just add talent, we added talent that really fit areas where we’re not as good as we wanted to be. That’s why we added those two guys.”

The addition of Porter was key in landing Brown as it will allow the five-star recruit to play his more natural power forward position. Musselman added his team’s personalities should blend well.

“We would not have gone the route we did if we didn’t think we would be able to have great team chemistry,” Musselman said. “The one thing we talk about as a staff every day is how happy guys are to be playing here. When we walk in after a win, everybody seems to be really ecstatic and it’s because they’ve all had big roles and we feel like nothing is going to change next year.”

Ensuring every player has a satisfying role next season might be a difficult juggling act. Musselman has typically used a seven- or eight-man rotation at Nevada, but his roster will be talented enough to go up to 12 players deep if he wants, which could change the Wolf Pack’s playing style.

“We feel like we have great depth,” Musselman said. “We feel like everybody on our roster headed into the season can play. We talked about trying to play at a little bit faster pace than we did before even though we have some post guys. We talked about extending our defense a little more and playing a little more junk defenses like we did in years one and two and kind of got away from it last year. It’s going to be a fun offseason for the coaches. We’re in every day, full days because we know we have a lot of things we need to tinker with and can explore different avenues than we did the first three years here.”

While Nevada has had a number of terrific teams in its past, it hasn’t had one with quite this much depth. If the Wolf Pack can keep everybody happy, it could be a special season, but when his team reports to summer school June 11, Musselman said his players must attack the offseason with the same vigor it has the last three summers.

“We haven’t proven anything,” Musselman said. “We have so many new faces. Yes, on paper, it’s probably the most talented team that we’ve had and the deepest team and the tallest team, but we’ve had three incredible offseasons and we need to have a great offseason this year. Guys have to really work.”

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at cmurray@rgj.com or follow him on Twitter @MurrayRGJ.